Fight flight is an instinctual response to a stressful situation. In ancient times our ancestors often needed to fight or give flight in order to survive. Today, we still have that same instinct along with the intense chemical responses that come with it. One problem is that we experience a lot more of it than our ancestors did.

In ancient times, a life threatening situation could happen at any time. People either had to react quickly or face death. Adrenalin was natures answer to this problem.

In modern times, these stressful situations are rarely life or death, but our bodies still react the same way. A sort of biochemical nightmare happens. Everything the body has is put towards immediate survival. Every system that is not needed now is shut down.

This takes a heavy toll on the body, and it has to have time to recover or these systems don’t get a chance to recover. Systems like the immune system, digestion, sex, and cellular repair. The things essential to survival of the species and long life.

To make maters worse, modern life provides luxuries that ancient cultures didn’t have, and these very same luxuries cause a fight flight reaction in our bodies, just like facing imminent death.

We end up being stuck in a permanent state of fight flight with none of the systems that keep us alive long term functioning fully if at all.

The ailments that develop from being stuck in fight flight vary from person to person depending on their genetic make up, environmental factors, and the person’s disposition — happy people tend to live longer. Most major health conditions that happen today can be traced right back to fight flight chemical reactions, if the biochemistry is looked at the right way.

The luxuries that cause our modern condition? One factor is emotional stress that can be caused by everyday activities like driving around, going to a job, not having enough money, bad news that comes to us all the time, multitasking, eating on the run, and so on.

In most cases, the biggest stress factor is diet. Modern processing has made food amply available in many countries. The body naturally craves carbohydrates because times were often lean for our ancestors. A sweet tooth is hereditary, they either fattened up for winter on sweet fruits or died. The biochemical reactions necessary to deal with sugar are the same as fight flight. Actually, it’s more accurate to say that sugar causes a fight flight reaction.

Every serious modern ailment can be traced back to the chemical reactions caused by the instinctual fight flight response. Everything from lower back pain to cancer. Diabetes, heart disease, depression, anxiety attacks, dementia, chronic fatigue all can be traced back to the reactions that come from fight flight and the adrenal fatigue that usually results. Of course, the whole of a condition has many factors.

There are things you can do about it. Learning to relax and accept maters for example. Studies show that being grateful for what you have increase happiness. And of course, avoiding processed foods like the plague that they are.

Adrenal fatigue is a big theme of this site, and that’s where fight flight leads. The body lives much longer when the adrenals are at peak efficiency, when stress is low

This has been a very incomplete article on what happens when the body is under stress for prolonged periods of time. Much has been left out or only hinted at. The whole story is pretty complex, but the main thing is to do everything you can to reduce or eliminate stress in your life. It will increase the length of that precious life.

A comment from Steve in 30 Symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue — paraphrased:

I read your article and thought I have alot of those symptoms. I am vegetarian (sometimes I eat cheese but rarely eat eggs, meat, or diary) because of IBS. Which really is annoying. Anyway 1/3 of my diet used to be potato chips and candies. I craved them all the time. I gained alot of weight over the last 2 years and decided that it was time to lose it. I was too heavy and didn’t like the way I felt so I went on this crash diet during the winter for 3 1/2 months. I cut back from eating 3 or more meals a day to 1 to 2 meals a day. I stayed up all night playing video games and would sleep most of the day. I rarely got out of the house and my nutrition was poor. I cut back on the chips and candy.

Come April I decided it was time to start exercising and completely alter my diet. (I was 30 pounds lighter now). I switched to a vegan diet eating whole vegetables, grains, lots of gardenburgers with some nuts.

He goes on to describe symptoms of hot flashes, irritable bowl syndrome (IBS), panic attack type symptoms and insomnia. The doctors put him on antidepressants because everything else was “normal.”

You can read the entire comment on 30 symptoms of adrenal fatigue.

My response:

Steve,

One possible explanation for what you have going on does have to do with adrenal fatigue and a failure of the liver to completely breakdown hormones.

When the body is functioning normally, hormones are created, used and discarded after they have done their job. This includes stress hormones and estrogens. Yes, male bodies have estrogens too.

Stress is caused by many different factors. Diet is the main one for most occupants of modern cultures where sugar and processed foods are easily attainable. Note: going hungry causes generally the same physiological effects that eating junk food does. Emotions are probably the second most common cause of stress. Exercise is another stressor that can contribute to the issue. Environmental toxins are probably the final contributor. Each of these issues are a conversation in themselves. I plan on covering factors other than diet, which I have covered fairly well, in the future.

Adrenal fatigue is a vicious cycle having to do with how stress causes the release of stress hormones which makes the body feel that it is under stress, so more stress hormones are released, etc. It is often more important to stop this cycle at the stress input level than to strengthen the adrenal glands themselves.

This adrenal cycle causes adrenal fatigue and the associated symptoms like your panic attacks and IBS.

Ideally, when under stress, the stress hormones are broken down by the liver. This is also where estrogens are broken down.

Estrogen dominance causes hot flashes.

So, when the liver has extra stress hormones to break down the estrogens don’t get broken down as they should leaving you with excess estrogens and the associated hot flashes.

As to your IBS, that is often caused by adrenal fatigue, but there are often complications. The fight or flight response is the main one.

Flight or flight causes all digestion to shut down, the immune system to quit, cellular repair to stop and the sexual functions to turn off. Nothing is more important than getting away from something that is immediately life threatening.

The problem is that we get stuck in this state. Our evolutionary ancestors hid in a cave or the top of a tree whimpering and crying until the issue was released and forgotten. In modern society we have to stand and face the threat while forcing down our instinctual reaction to run or lash out. Consequently, the emotions get stuck in the body causing us to be stuck in an internal fight flight reaction that has nowhere to go.

Outside intervention is needed to deal with this. There are emotional clearing techniques like emotional freedom technique, but you need to know which emotions to clear. I do this through muscle testing. I’ve been trying to think of how to help people find the emotions to clear for themselves, but there isn’t an easy way to do this short of teaching how to do muscle testing which requires some skill.

Another possiblility that I have been working on is using relaxing herbs to calm the part of the brain that continues to feel in stress so that fight flight can be released.

There are many issues that are caused by adrenal fatigue and by the factors that cause adrenal fatigue. Probably the best thing to do in this case is to take calming and relaxing herbs. Complexes made from the whole herb in powder form are generally the best.

And, animal protein is essential for most people’s health. I hope you can get to the point where there isn’t a problem eating it. Why eating animal protein is so important and why vegetarianism doesn’t work for most people is a whole other subject.

It’s Almost Impossible For Vegetarians To Heal

I got an email from a woman who’s having quite a few problems. She bought Self Adjusting Technique from me, and can’t get her neck to adjust. 

She also has trouble with panic attacks that a chiropractic adjustment on her neck helps, but not for long. 

She doesn’t eat sugar, but is vegan and only eats whole buckwheat, quinoa ad other non-glutinous grains. 

She also uses a massager and take detox and nervine herbs to relax her, and to help clear Candida.

I thought I’d post my response to her since I run into so many vegans. It really isn’t a dietary model that works for humans, especially when ill already. 

In case you don’t know, a vegan eats nothing that comes from animals including eggs and dairy. 

Hi (name withheld),

I have quite a few suggestions.

First, there is a video on my youtube channel, Kalidasab, that teaches a massage technique for the neck. It’ll really help you out.

Second, the yeast isn’t going away for two reasons. First, you almost definitely have heavy metal toxicity which masks pathogens from the immune system. You’ll have to eliminate the metals before the yeast will clear up. Unless….

Now, this is a big unless for you as a vegan. Our bodies evolved eating animal protein, 90 percent according to recent archaeological discoveries. Most people simply can not be healthy unless they eat animal protein. I eat what is sometimes called the paleolithic diet, called that because it’s what our ancestors ate prehistory, in very ancient times. I eat only animal protein, fish, chicken, turkey and limited beef and pork with plenty of vegetables and some fruit. You see, grains feed Candida as do oranges and other really sweet fruit. This also keeps the adrenal glands stronger which leads to my comments about panic attacks.

You can sweat to help get rid of the toxins you’re dealing with. Dry sauna is best, but a hot bath works too. 30 minutes is the ideal time to sweat. You might have to build up to it.

Panic attacks are caused by brain chemistry imbalance. I know you said that you get relief when your neck is adjusted, but the root is still in the brain. And, the brain gets that way from the adrenal glands producing too much cortosol which attacks the hypothalamus which influences the rest of the brain causing the imbalance. I really doubt that you will be able to get really healthy unless you eat animal protein.

Now, I realize this may not be possible for you for philosophical reasons. I’ve known plenty of people with that. If that’s the case, then only eat the grains whole and take bromalain. Bromalain is a digestive enzyme that most people lack that turns legumes (beans) and grain into usable protein. You don’t mention that you eat beans, so you definitely won’t be getting sufficient protein regardless. You simply must include all the amino acids, and make them usable with each meal. It takes two extra strength capsules of bromalain with each meal to make the combination work.

I say whole grains, because processed grains — grinding is processing, have a high glycemic index, that is they cause a lot of insulin to be released which causes a biochemical nightmare in your body that can result in the issues you have. There’s a fair amount of info on my blog about all of this, you can read or listen to the posts in the adrenal category.

There’s a lot more you might like to know, but this is a really good start. 

Best,

Kalidasa

I get a lot of questions about the adrenal glands, probably because I understand them so well. From the questions it is clear that a little understanding of how they work with other glands and how to treat the underlying issue of adrenal fatigue will be helpful.

And, it won’t be to complicated, I promise!

There is something called the HPA axis. This stands for Hypothalamus, Pituitary, Adrenal. This is an important axis as they work together to keep the body safe.

This has to do with ancient times when we needed to react to our environment in order to survive. Fight or flight is an emotional instinct that kept our ancestors from becoming extinct. It may not be as necessary as it was then, but we’re left with it. And, it does serve its purpose in times of need.

The problem is that many of us live such stressful lives, that the system never turns off. This is what causes the adrenals to become problematic. Of course, sugar and processed foods contribute greatly to this issue, but life stress also causes many of the adrenal problems that I have been writing about.

I could go on and on about fight/flight. It is a major player in poor health. But, let’s stick to the HPA axis for now.

Here’s what happens. Stressful emotions are received by the hypothalamus, that’s just how the brain works. A lot goes on with this, but again, trying to keep focus. The hypothalamus tells the pituitary that there is stress and something needs to be done to deal with. So, the pituitary tells the adrenals to produce stress hormones. The stress hormones tells the hypothalamus that there is stress which tells the pituitary…

And round and round it goes. The HPA axis gets stuck in a loop that is very hard to get out of. It’s one of the reasons we need a long vacation every year, just to get out of that loop. Of course, that doesn’t always work either.

But, there are supplements that can help. Calming herbs can be a great boon. One of my favorite supplements for this is from Apex Energetics called adrenacalm. It’s pricey though. Another is from Standard Process, my favorite supplements in general, called hypothalamex. This one doesn’t work all the time though.

The best bet, and most cost effective, for most people is to go to the health food or herb store and get a bottle of herbs that is a combination of various calming herbs. They are in a class called Nervine herbs. I’ll include a partial list below.

The reason to get several in a formula is that they work synergistically. And, you want to get capsules with the whole herb ground up in them. Tinctures rarely work as the concentration is poor. And, you might want to take two to three times the recomended dose, at least to start.

For many people, getting the hypothalamus to cool out will help their adrenals to recover fully. Most need other supplements for the adrenals as well as a diet change.

Nervine And Relaxant Herbs With Effects
A partial list

PASSIONFLOWER, Passiflora incarnata, Nervine, anxiety
HOPS, Humulus lupulus, Nervine
VALERIAN, Valeriana officinalis, Nervine, anger
OATS, Avena sativa Nervine, relaxant
LEMON BALM, Melissa officinalis, Nervine
SKULLCAP, Scutellaria lateriflora, Sedative, nervine, trophorestorative
BAICAL SKULLCAP, Scutellaria baicalensis, Nervine
ROSEMARY, Rosmarinus officinalis, Carminative, nervine, headaches, sciatica
CHAMOMILE, Matricaria recutita, Relaxant, asthma, bronchitis
KAVA, Piper methysticum, Hypnotic, relaxant, anxiety
ST JOHNS WORT, Hypericum perforatum, Nerve pain, sciatica, anti-depressant, cold/flu
VERVAIN, Verbena officinalis, To much going on or doing to much, stress